I inadvertantly overcharged my battery and got my best range ever!

[mbepic]

The ICE did not come on, there was no gas burn from the 1.5 L I had already used. The green charge light was blinking (fully charged) when I started the car, and then it changed to solid green (charging). It was still showing solid green when I unplugged the car.

Prior to reading your response, I thought I would try to recreate what you did; my Volt was fully charged with the blinking light and the estimated range showed 41miles. I powered on the Volt, turned off the auto headlights and yes, the charge light turned to solid.

I intended to allow this to charge for 1 hour and see what range difference it would make (don't have the test app, you have);
after about 20-30mins, I went back to garage and found the charge light blinking (blows the theory, at least in my case). I turned off the Volt and powered back on and the estimated range still showed 41 miles and interestingly enough, this time, my charge light continued to blink. There must be a maximum the battery will really MAX out at and possibly every Volt is a little different in that way.............maybe you got yourself a 'stronger' battery than me???

BTW, some time ago, I tried what I refer to as 'deep charge cycle' where the Volt is plugged in and shows fully charged with the blinking light; you simply unplug the Volt and then plug it back in without doing anything else and that showed the Volt charging again but not sure for how long..........my guess is probably approx. 20mins or when it thinks it has MAXed out (same as above).

[Richmond72]

I have noticed that I get a little more battery usage when running remote start in the winter AND summer. My car is parked in my garage and it is never very cold or hot in either season which makes me think running a remote start cycle allows the battery to take a litte more charge. I'll have to try just starting the car and see if it makes more of a difference vs remote start.

[adric22]

I wonder how much of the extra range just came from having the car cooled down so the A/C didn't have to work as hard?

[ChuckR]

If either the charge cord is unplugged and reconnected or any other type of momentary power interruption occurs after a full battery charge, I see ~ 0.25 kwh extra battery charge.

[MIN FUEL]

This is the best range I have gotten even when I have not used AC. The extra charge definitely helped.

[mbepic]

If either the charge cord is unplugged and reconnected or any other type of momentary power interruption occurs after a full battery charge, I see ~ 0.25 kwh extra battery charge.

If that is true, it really is hardly worthwhile doing it and may go against the GM 'engineering' who built in battery longevity with the current program.

As a postscript to my earlier posting; I started up this morning and found that my estimated range was actually 43miles, when last night it only showed 41miles after doing the 'recreation' of this scenario. Seems like my battery got itself a little strength overnight.